Mixed bloodlines and a surprising urge to find a mate drive Scarlet into the arms of the one male in the Crossroads bar that isn’t looking.

Scarlet is content to be the product of two very different cultures and slightly oddball parents. She has her job, her home, and her family, so why would she want anything else?

The wild magic in her veins is looking for an outlet, and it wants to bring forward the next generation.

With no prospects in her area, the Crossroads is offered as a chance to find a mate, so Scarlet packs light and heads out to seek the man she hasn’t even thought about.

Hiro is an architect doing design work for the Crossroads as he has for years. When he sees the lady with brilliant hair dismissing an eager suitor with the deft twist of her wrist, bringing the idiot to his knees, Hiro knows that he wants to find out what brought her to the Crossroads, even if he can’t offer it to her.

Excerpt:

She wasn’t worried about locals breaking into the shop. All the trouble they had had over the years were due to campers trying to get grabby. Her dad had sorted them out, but then, no one expected a big foot to come charging out of the woods when his daughter called.

Scarlet wrinkled her nose at the memory. For some reason, when confronted by eight feet of snarling and hairy furious father, they had all pissed themselves. It was definitely not dignified, nor was the high-pitched scream that came out of them afterward.

“You are amused by something.” Her father’s voice came out of the woods.

“Of course. I am a cheerful person by nature.” She grinned and followed the deep shadow into the unending midnight beneath the trees.

“It was not a cheerful smile.”

She snickered. “No, it was not. Good catch.”

He turned and gave her a smile with his white fangs and red eyes glowing. “It was an easy guess. You are my blood, after all.”

“What did mom make for dinner?”

He sighed and continued toward their expansive cabin. “She got a new cookbook, so I think that kimchi was involved.”

Scarlet covered her mouth so that she didn’t let out the amused cackle. Biyu Wilson was a child of two worlds. Scarlet’s grandmother had a quick relationship with a member of the American military who happened to be a shifter with compatible bloodlines. Biyu could pass for full Chinese with a little makeup, but it meant a life outside her shifter circle. When she was an adult, she had an arranged marriage, but when her new husband’s family found out she was half-blooded, they shunned her and drove her away.

Arthur Wilson was a hiker, going on his round-the-world pilgrimage before he settled down in the mountains of his home and tried to decide whether he wanted to join the human world or shun it. This was big coming-of-age stuff for a sasquatch.

He found Biyu and settled her in a small home on the outskirts of the village at the edge of the Himalayas. Arthur spent weeks getting knowledge and insight from yetis, and when he returned, Biyu always had a meal waiting for him.

At one point, they decided to make their connection official, and the paperwork began to get Biyu and her soon-to-be child into North America.

Emery Bao Wilson was born one week after his mother arrived in the coldest winter that the locals could remember. Scarlet thought of her brother as she walked up the steps of the deck and took her shoes off at the edge of the landing before the deck itself.

The seat cushions were set evenly around the table, and there was always a spot set for Emery, even though he was halfway around the world running a food truck.

The cooking gene had all gone to Emery. By the time Scarlet had entered the kitchen, her fascination had gone to setting the table and making everything tidy. Her dad joked and said that she was more raccoon than red panda. Scarlet always pokered up and said that raccoons make a mess and she fixes it.

Arthur was pretty happy with the family he hadn’t planned for. When he was in his human form, it was all over his face.

Her mom smiled and said, “Sit, sit. We are just waiting for one more.”

Scarlet looked at the empty space. “Emery?”

“No, we need to explain something to you, and we weren’t sure how to do it, so Hanna is coming to help us get through the definition.”

Scarlet grinned as she took her seat. “Aunt Baby?”

Footsteps on the stairs caught her attention, and another dark-furred sasquatch came up and onto the deck.

Biyu brought robes from a hook inside, and soon, Arthur and Aunty Hanna were seated and ready for experimental dinner.

Hanna Wilson was two years younger than Scarlet, and she really got annoyed at the tag of Aunt Baby. It was accurate. She was a late addition to the Wilson family and had arrived two years after her niece.

Multi-generational families were fun.

They held hands before they picked up their flat metal chopsticks and began to dip into the bubbling cauldron of stew on the small burner in the centre of the table.

Biyu smiled and picked up a lettuce leaf. “You can either eat the stew with rice, or you can pile it up on the leaf, fold it, and eat it that way.”

Scarlet tried the leaf. “Asian taco, here I come.”

“Use some of the side dishes, Scarlet. They are supposed to add to the flavour.”

“I will try them. This looks promising.” She scooped up some shredded daikon covered in drizzled soy sauce and dropped it on the lettuce. She went fishing in the communal pot and snagged a chunk of beef that nearly fell apart as she extracted it. Once the meat was on the radish, all eyes were on her. She rolled and folded the leaf into a packet and stuffed the whole thing in her mouth.

Scarlet hung onto the edge of the table as she chewed and swallowed, her sinuses burned clear, and she was pretty sure she could see through time. “Mom, that is not daikon. That is wasabi.” The tablespoon she had taken was slowly making its way down to her stomach.

Her dad was staring at her in horror. “Wasabi?”

Biyu smiled. “It was on sale. The daikon was just too big. I used it in the stew and saved the other radish for the side. Is it tasty?”